mayor lee, supervisor chiu, distinguished guests from the community, city family, all of us coming together. last year we held a pilot project on stockton street to help the merchants and support the merchants in selling their merchandise. we were able -- we were very successful. we got a lot of great feedback from the pilot. so this year again, we are doing the second year of the pilot. all the agencies and the community and the merchants, we got together, and talked about how we can do better. and without further delay, i will ask the mayor to come and say a few words, who is a big supporter of this project. mayor lee. >> thank you mohammed. [ applause ] >> i am very happy to be here. is this okay? all right. all right. [ laughter ] all right. first of all, happy new year to everyone. this is what i'm looking forward to every year and i know the merchants and residents and all the small businesses are excited. a year ago board of supervisors president david chiu and i and members of the community discussed how we can continue the economic vitality of the city and clearly we registered a b